The setting and circumstances of this book were new to me and pulled me right in: the Owens Valley in California during World War II, when the government co-opted the farmers' use of water to send it to Los Angeles and at the same time created in the once-bountiful valley an internment camp for Japanese Americans. The main characters are members of a farming family plus the man who was tasked with setting up the camp, even though he didn't approve of this treatment of the Japanese people. Wiggins made me care about these people and wonder how they would deal with these stark conflicts. What a masterful writer!
A National Bestseller A New Yorker Best Book of 2022
Fifteen years after the publication of Evidence of Things Unseen, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins returns with a "big, bold book" (USA TODAY) destined to be an American classic: a sweeping masterwork set during World War II about the meaning of family and the limitations of the American Dream.
Rockwell "Rocky" Rhodes has spent years fiercely protecting his California ranch from the LA Water Corporation. It is here where he and his beloved wife Lou raised their twins, Sunny and Stryker, and it is here where…
I loved that this tale of a midwife in the U.S. in the 1700's is based on an actual woman, Martha Ballard, one of the few women of her time and place who had learned how to read and write. Her choice to keep a written journal of her wide-ranging medical practice provides dramatic insights to the period and touches upon her experiences with high drama, including murder and rape. I was struck by the fact that life in our newly formed nation was not yet firmly protected by the rule of well-established laws. A truly gripping story!
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • AN NPR BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.
"Fans of Outlander’s Claire Fraser will enjoy Lawhon’s Martha, who is brave and outspoken when it comes to protecting the innocent. . . impressive."—The Washington Post
"Once again, Lawhon works storytelling magic with a real-life heroine." —People Magazine
Here's another book that made me feel deeply the dramas of another time and place. Yes, I learned in school about European world explorers who sought adventure and riches as they searched the "new world," but this book struck me hard with both the hazards of their travels and the dangers they posed to the indigenous people they encountered in the Pacific Islands. Hampton Sides creates a feeling of immediacy as he unfolds a portrait of the experienced English explorer, Captain James Cook. This, Cook's final voyage, was undertaken apparently as he was undergoing an unfortunate personality transformation. An exotic story, both exciting and disturbing.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR FOR 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • A “thrilling and superbly crafted” (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.
“Hampton Sides, an acclaimed master of the nonfiction narrative, has taken on Cook’s story and retells it for the 21st century.”—Los Angeles Times
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest…
Four years old and homeless, William Walters boarded one of the last American Orphan Trains in 1930 and embarked on an astonishing quest through nine decades of U.S. and world history.
For 75 years, the Orphan Trains had transported 250,000 children from the streets and orphanages of the East Coast into homes in the emerging West, sometimes providing loving new families, other times delivering kids into nightmares. Taken by a cruel New Mexico couple, William faced a terrible trial, but his strength and resilience carried him forward into unforgettable adventures.
Whether escaping his abusers, jumping freights as a preteen during the Great Depression, or infiltrating Japanese-held islands as a teenage Marine during WWII, William’s unique path paralleled the tumult of the twentieth century—and personified the American dream.
